Your Permission Slip for Simple

EP208: Dear homeschooler, ever feel like life’s chaos is hijacking your brain? Listen in as experienced homeschooler and mentor Jean Miller offers you a permission slip for simple.

Our brain often misinterprets emotional stress as physical danger, which is a phenomenon known as amygdala hijacking.

In this episode of the podcast, Jean offers practical strategies that will be a balm for your nervous system.

The 20-20-20 Rule and Handwork + Stories can provide much-needed ease and simplicity for times when homeschooling and life become overwhelming.

Because connection, not perfection, is the secret sauce for successful homeschooling.

Find the Show Notes here  https://artofhomeschooling.com/episode208/

Join the Inspired at Home Community

Chapters

• 0:41 Overwhelm & Fight, Flight, or Freeze
• 1:45 Crazy examples from my own life
• 3:02 Amygdala hijacking
• 4:31 Get back to connecting with your family
• 5:47 This is where your permission slip for simple comes in
• 6:25 20-20-20 Homeschool Rule
• 8:33 Let's recap

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, jean Miller, and here on this podcast you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin Today. I want to grant you permission to keep your homeschooling and your life really simple. Welcome to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, and in this episode I'm going to share a little bit about how and why to do that, because when we feel overwhelmed or life feels chaotic, our brains often think we're in danger, and then we go into fight, flight or freeze mode, and none of that is helpful for bringing engaging learning activities to our kiddos or helping us to foster connections with them, which is what we really want. So if you've been feeling overwhelmed or discouraged lately, listen up, because in this episode I'm going to share a bit about why this happens and how we can keep things simple, no matter what's going on around us or how we're feeling about it. Let me just share that for me, life has been a crazy ride lately. Two significant life events happened just two days apart. First, I became a grandmother one Friday evening a few weeks ago, and I cannot tell you what an incredible joy it is to see your child become a parent. The images of my son holding his newborn baby daughter just melt my heart. Every day I have a new favorite photo and by the time this episode goes live and by the time this episode goes live I'll be holding that little grandbaby in my arms. Oh, I just can't wait. Then, just two short days after our wonderful news, my elderly mother who has dementia, wound up in the hospital with pneumonia and I'm her person. So that meant 10 straight days spent at the hospital navigating her care. She's finally getting better and back in her memory care apartment, but it has been a crazy few weeks. So I need a permission slip for simple just as much as you might.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Right now and this is where I want to share a really interesting thing I've learned about the human brain that when we feel overwhelmed or experience chaos or trauma, our brain often perceives those strong emotions in the same way it would as if we were in physical danger. That means that strong emotions like overwhelm and fear can be perceived by our brains as just as dangerous as physical danger is. There's even a psychological term for this, known as amygdala hijacking, which simply means that our emotions take over and our brains tell us to beware right Danger, danger, be on the lookout. I'll link to an article in the show notes if you want to read more about how this works, but what I want you to keep in mind here is that whenever you feel overwhelmed, the best way to calm your nerves is to recognize this is your brain trying to keep you safe. So if this isn't what's going on for you right now, put a bookmark on this episode, because in the future, if you are ever feeling overwhelmed or discouraged, this would be the episode number 208 to come back and listen to.

Speaker 1: 4:31

So when we are feeling overwhelmed, we can calm our nerves down by breathing that can be a really powerful tool here or moving our bodies, like getting into our physical body and moving around to help move the emotions out. Getting outdoors is another really good way to help with this. And then, after calming down and when we want to get back to connecting with our children and get back to the homeschooling lessons, that's when you want to keep things really simple. This is helpful for us as homeschoolers anytime our rhythm gets thrown off. So the ideas that I'm going to share with you for keeping things simple can be applied in lots of different situations. When big life events happen, like what I shared is going on for me lately, or when someone is ill, the holidays are busier than usual, or our kids are simply overstimulated by events that are happening. Really, anything that's revving up everyone's emotions can be a time to apply these ideas I'm going to share with you. That's where your permission slip for simple comes in right.

Speaker 1: 5:51

Scale back your lessons, your rhythm, your outside of the family activities for just a bit, so that everyone can reset. So what does this look like? What does it look like for lessons in particular? Well, you get to decide, but here are some ideas. Perhaps it's spending more time outdoors, curling up on the couch with a great read aloud book for the whole family, playing games like Uno, math War or Set, and calling that math practice for the day math war or set and calling that math practice for the day. I have a really simple framework for scaling back in crazy times that I like to call the 20-20-20 rule, and it's 20 minutes of each of the main subjects that you could do in a day, 20 minutes of activities in each of those that can help you really feel like it's not all or nothing. Go listen to that podcast episode from a few weeks back if you want, but it can help you feel like you've really done some homeschooling without putting you into the overwhelm spin. If you want to hear more details about this, check out my Homeschool Simplicity 101 collection. I'll be sure to link to that in the show notes as well, because it gives you more background on this and some more examples of how to do it in your own homeschool.

Speaker 1: 7:18

Here is another simplification strategy for homeschooling through the holidays in particular, or really anytime life gets busy. I learned the hard way that keeping a full lesson structure in the month of December rarely works. Then I discovered something that I call Handwork Plus Stories. It's a great homeschooling approach for the holidays or tough times in general pairing a book a really fabulous book, a children's book that you can read to the whole family with a handwork project. And if you want to join a loving community of like-minded homeschoolers while we all bring Handwork Plus Stories to our kiddos during the holiday season, check out the Inspired at Home community. This is our focus for the month of December every single year and so far we have over 20 book recommendations paired with Handwork projects just for you and your family. You can find links to Homeschool Simplicity 101 and the Inspired at Home community in the show notes at artofhomeschoolingcom slash episode 208.

Speaker 1: 8:32

Here's a little recap of this short and sweet episode today. First, when big emotions come our way, our brains might react as if we're in real physical danger. Trains might react as if we're in real physical danger. So the next thing to do is calm your body down, like get into your physical body and use some techniques to bring that sense of danger down. Then simplify your homeschooling and your life. You could implement the 20-20-20 rule in your homeschool or switch to a simple weekly rhythm of handwork plus stories and that, my friend, is your permission slip for simple Hope. That helps you today, no matter where you are on your homeschooling journey.

Speaker 1: 9:20

And now I have one little request If you found this episode encouraging or love listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, please share it with at least one friend who you think might benefit from listening in. Thank you so much for being here and I'm sending you peace and hugs. Catch you next time. That's all for today, my friend, but here's what I want you to remember Rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast. Thank you.